Rare tornado slams Boston area

A collapsed roof is seen with damaged automobiles at a car
workshop on Herman Street in Revere, Massachusetts. Police
and emergency crews in Revere, outside Boston scrambled to
clean up after a rare tornado touched down. Photo by
Reuters

Officials and residents in the Boston-area city of Revere
are picking up the pieces after it was raked by a rare tornado
that knocked out power and damaged homes and buildings.

The National Weather Service said a tornado touched down
during a storm that brought heavy rains, lightning and
flooding to Boston, Massachusetts, and many of its northern
suburbs on Monday (local time).

"Obviously we had a monumental storm come through our city
early this morning," Revere Mayor Daniel Rizzo told
reporters. "There's widespread damage, downed power lines,
telephone poles, a lot of public buildings and homes that
have been damaged."

State emergency management officials said they were not aware
of major injuries or fatalities from the storm.

Revere police reported extensive damage to homes and trees
after the violent weather. Rizzo wrote on Twitter that
officials would be arranging a relief fund on Tuesday.

Boston and cities to its northeast reported extensive street
flooding from the storm, which dropped rain at the rate of
3.8cm to 5cm an hour, the National Weather Service said.

The Boston Globe newspaper cited an official with National
Grid as saying that 500 homes were still without power as of
late on Monday evening. The newspaper also reported that the
tornado damaged more than 100 homes.

The weather across the region and across the U.S. was
forecast to cooperate with clean-up efforts on Tuesday, said
National Weather Service meteorologist Rich Thompson.

"In terms of severe storms, it doesn't look like there is
much of a threat anywhere today," Thompson said. "We are
continuing on the slow, downhill slide."

Live television video showed multiple buildings with roofs or
walls partly pulled off and downed trees and branches
throughout the city. Rizzo said many windows and doors had
been blown out at City Hall, prompting an evacuation of that
building, which he said is not likely to be safe to reoccupy
for several days.

Tornadoes are uncommon in Massachusetts, although a large
spate of storms in June 2011 badly damaged downtown
Springfield, in the central part of the state, killing three
people.

At least two twisters briefly touched down near Denver
International Airport late on Monday afternoon, though there
were no reports of damage, Thompson said.

Passengers were told to seek shelter for about 30 minutes,
the airport said on Twitter.